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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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Writing As the Opposite Gender |
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When it comes to characters point of view it shouldn't matter their gender. What's matter is their personality, their background, their education, their age, their culture and their place in society. I find that if you think of them as their own person and not as puppets they can become believable. Focus on how they would react to situations and when it comes to romance it will all fit into place because what they say, react and do is realistic to them. Which would make each character different and unique.
For example: You have a character name Max, he's quite, a little shy and has a hard time opening up to people. Maybe it's because he doesn't trust people until he gets to know them more (or he thinks that they'll judge him if he shows them his true personality or something). But when meeting a female love interest he wouldn't automatically open up to her. That would make him out of character if he did that, let alone to any other characters. And/or he wouldn't also be all up in a characters face if he's got a crush or is in love with them. He's mature, in his mid to late 20s and he acts and does thing according to his personality/how he was raised/learn and such.
It would be the same with a female character as well. They might haven been raised different, have a slightly different personality and so on. But if they have a similar aspect, such as being shy like Max is, they too wouldn't open up to people the first time they meet someone or their love interest. They would want to get to know someone more and when they do, they open up themselves.
As you can see, knowing your character's thoughts, personality, life, etc is all that matters and not their gender. It's insulting to read stories or people complaining about not knowing how to write the opposite gender or stereotyping them. For example, all the males are thinking of sex and females 24/7 or females always focusing on girly things and their looks. Sure the females care about how they look but not all of them spend four hours in the bathroom every day getting ready or worrying about getting wet in the rain or getting dirty.
Some of them don't even focus on that unless there's a really good reason they have to look their best on a certain day or so. As for the guys, they aren't always thinking about sex, maybe once in a while something catches their attention like a celebrity or someone he meets. But mostly they think about their jobs, school work, hang out with their friends talking about stuff like their lives or the stupid things they heard or saw another friend do or play video games. Go to the movies, go to the arcade or do things that interest them personally. If one of them is into hockey than they're most likely to go to the games or play it in their school or something.
It's not that much of a difference from females. They too like to hang out with friends, talk about stuff and/or play video games. Hang out in the mall, check out stores or go to the movies. Even do things that interest them like going to the beach, check out the museum, go to the games of whatever sport they like...if they're a fan of it, etc.
Again, know your character inside and out and you'll be able to write them just fine on paper for any situation. If you get stuck, maybe ask advice from a (male or female depending what gender the character is) friend, ask them how they would react or what they'll do or think if they were in place of the character. Writing the opposite gender isn't as difficult as many think. It's quite easy once a person realizes that it is not what they look like or what they are that matters, but the inside that counts.
 DamnBlackHeart · Thu Mar 10, 2011 @ 11:21pm · 0 Comments |
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